Sunday, October 4, 2009

Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008)

DEGENERATION is a computer-animated feature film that serves as a direct sequel to Resident Evil 2, the hit video game that originally appeared on Playstation. It finds Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield battling a new outbreak of the T- and G-Viruses at an Indian airport as they attempt to track down the terrorist organization behind the attacks. After a shoddy intro with texture mapping and character design that looked like it came straight out of the 90s, the imaging immediately ramps up and looks absolutely amazing throughout the rest of the feature. There are a few moments when the visuals are so impressive they could easily be mistaken for being live-action. The designers experiment with glass, water, and fire texturing, each of which are handled very well. There are also several ambitious action sequences which would normally be over-the-top in a live feature, but are more forgivable and acceptable in an animated film. The zombies are gore are enough to satiate any Horror fan, with a good amount of attacks, but a larger majority of brain-splattering as the special ops team blasts their way through the zombie hordes. The film is less suspenseful than the game series, but certainly scarier and darker than the tiring big-budget action of the other films. Though the plot falls closely in line with the storylines of the games, for the amount of effort that went into the design seems misplaced for such a generic addition to the series. It was still engaging and visually appealing, and I can see myself easily reproaching this one before any of the lame live-action entries.

2 comments:

I really enjoyed this one. The animation is superb & the Action moves along very nicely. The whole escape through the airport sequence is suitably claustrophobic & makes for great edge of the seat viewing, better than most Zombie flicks out there shot without 2D characters. A very good entry in the Resident Evil realm too. Now is Mila making another Live Action Resident Evil ?. Let's hope so, I kinda have a soft spot for these.

I think this entry was the height of the film series, Im all out on the actual movies, though surprisingly I liked Apocalypse better than the previous two. They just took such an action-oriented approach that the Horror seemed secondary. I wanted the creepy as shit mansion with minimal characters, which would obviously not translate well on film due to the lack of dialogue

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